Knights Vs Roosters - Prelim Final '13

[Swarzey]

On that penalty at the end of the first half, I'm amazed the Roosters player wasn't sent. The tackle was clearly complete and he strips the ball. How was that any different to what Burgess did against the Tigers? It wasn't.

 

[Apey]

Yeah once again the decision to take the 2 didn't sit with me.

 

[Apey]

On that penalty at the end of the first half, I'm amazed the Roosters player wasn't sent. The tackle was clearly complete and he strips the ball. How was that any different to what Burgess did against the Tigers? It wasn't.

Yeah this annoyed me as much as the forward pass. If you lie on a player too long after a line-break it's (sometimes) a professional foul but if you strip it it's not? Bitch please.

 

[Swarzey]

Yeah this annoyed me as much as the forward pass. If you lie on a player too long after a line-break it's (sometimes) a professional foul but if you strip it it's not? Bitch please.

Even when we took the first two. The bloke was far from onside and tackles Mullo. Another blatant professional foul.

Just so frustrating.

 

[Dave_]

One of the things that doesn't surprise me was Princess not standing up when it mattered. Absolute pea heart that is a waste of coin that would be better used elsewhere.

 

[Zoidberg]

I don't agree. Taking the 2 points was fine with me. We were expecting a very tight game and thought every point would be vital.

The thing is, the refs should've played advantage on that play. We made a break, were spreading the ball out wide and the ref blew a penalty before the play broke down.

 

[K-Man]

Deserved win by them.

They have what we don't. Have said it from the start of the year and will say it again - we really lack support play in our forwards. Too much one up hit-ups and not enough forwards running off each other and getting momentum.

I agree. I was pumped and proud of the win over the Storm, but to be honest I haven't bought too heavily into the hype about how Bennett has proved everyone wrong and all our players were suddenly a million times better than we gave them credit for.

For a majority of the season I think we've played the type of overly structured football, lacking in creativity, that works to a certain extent until you come up against the best.

I was really disappointed with our game plan tonight. Sure, we weren't good enough regardless but I would have loved to see us throw something at them at the very least. Expanding our game worked against Melbourne, but we tried to out-grind the Roosters and failed miserably.

Did we think we could win 3-2? Should have played with more flair in the first half instead of just getting dominated completely in the ruck.

 

[perverse]

We just got pummelled out of the match. We need another big bopper or 2. Snowy would have helped. When Bedsy went down, the mountain became way too big and we lost our shit. We just need to learn from that and put in a massive off season. I'm proud of how far we come.

 

[RABK]

Really need Clydesdale to step up next year if possible. Apart from that... a possible Dally M for Mullen would cap his year and hopefully solidify his new found consistency and class.

Then it's the same side with a lot more belief and a bit of fresh blood in Toka, Sims and Clydesdale filtering through. Long off season though.

I'll always support the Knights but geez the NRL admin and refs have taken all the fun away.

 

[K-Man]

I don't agree. Taking the 2 points was fine with me. We were expecting a very tight game and thought every point would be vital.

The thing is, the refs should've played advantage on that play. We made a break, were spreading the ball out wide and the ref blew a penalty before the play broke down.

Different approaches and that's fine, but personally I don't understand the mentality.

The Roosters give those penalties away because they don't want you to gain momentum and they don't mind if you take 2 points as long as you don't walk away with 6.

We defended bravely and clung on for dear life at 2-0, then just at the moment we could have swung the momentum and got the Roosters doubting themselves, we were content to tie it up and go back down the other end of the field. When was the next time we attacked their line after that? We conceded 2 tries before we had even seen another decent chance to score ourselves.

For me it's not always about the score, it's about the situation of the game and the statement you're making.

Let's be honest, we were never going to score a lot of tries against a team even Manly couldn't crack for a try. I thought our best chance was if we could convert our rare chances in the first half into tries and establish a lead. I had zero confidence we could out-grind them in the forwards, and we couldn't. We needed to play some football and hope things went our way. Penalty goals were never, every going to be enough.

 

[Swarzey]

Clydesdale will be incredible. I have complete faith he'll be able to step up and become a great, great hooker. It will take some time, but he'll be phenomenal.

 

[Rod]

We got beaten by a superior side. I can cop that although the large scoreline is a bit disappointing. The second try (the gridiron pass one) was the straw that broke the camel's back. Going into halftime 6-4 would have been incredible considering the way the Roosters were playing and we were defending with absolutely everything we had but 12-4 you just got a sense it was a bit too much for us.

Their forwards are just freakish, they pummelled us with their quick play-the-balls and offloads. As I said I can cop that because they are simply better than us in that area. At the end of the day I'm actually almost more shattered with the way Bedsy went out than how the game ended up.

We had a very good finals series all things considered (including no Snowden, Gidley or Cuthbertson). A lot to look forward to for next year.

 

[undertaker]

I just arrived back home from the game and this is what I have to say....

Congrats to the Knights for making it this far. As some of you will see from previous threads on this forum, things were looking very bleak for us after that Dragons game at home. One of the most peahearted, uninspiring performances we put in in our clubs history right from the kick-off. To see that we have fallen one game short of a Grand Final after that horrible Saturday night back in June is quite incredible. We have come a very long way since then. Our turning point as a club (and what kickstarted our run to the finals) was that win against the Bulldogs in Mackay. We grinded out a very hard win in difficult conditions and up until that point, we had a terrible away record (only one game at the Gold Coast). Things are definitely looking very promising for next year, given we have progressed just as far as Souffs did - a team which, unlike the Knights, had been dominant for most of the season but capitulated when it mattered the most due to inexperience against an experienced side who will be playing their 4th GF over the past 7 season (Manly).

On to tonight's game...

very sad way for Buderus to go out. I still cannot believe that JWH didn't face any disciplinary action for that. If Kade Snowden got sent off for what he did (as well as suspended vs Penrith for a jokable, supposed "knee-lift")....I just don't know what to say.

Refereeing was abysmal. From early on, I didn't have a good feeling about our chances. That Roosters 2nd try was absolutely laughable. SBW's pass went more than a metre forward. I mean, seriously, why do we even pay touch-judges? The game would be far better off without them.

Compared to the previous two weeks, our completion rate was terrible and even without the Buderus incident (which was crucial, as we lost a lot of leadership when he went off the field) and bad refereeing, we simply did not play well enough to win. Very easy handling errors and turnovers that you can ill-afford to make in finals football, and the Knights left one of their worst performances of the year for last. At half-time, I felt the Knights really needed a Herculian performance to get out of this one, but when the Roosters scored that first try in the 2nd half, the Knights really threw in the towel after that and let in some extremely soft tries which led to the mass exodus of Knights fans leaving the ground just before they scored their first try with 12 or so minutes to go. I'm 100% sure Wayne Bennett will be extremely disappointed to finish the season like that and just give up like that.

Congrats to all the Knights fans that turned out in busloads like they did in 2000. Lovely to hear that "NEW-CA-STLE" chant reverberate around the ground (and even in the toilets!). Felt like a Knights home game in Sydney. A shame we couldn't exorcise the demons from that night, but there were clearly more Knights fans than Roosters fans tonight. A couple of ugly incidents in the crowd where police had to intervene. Anyways, you always get a few dropkicks that try to screw things up for everyone.

P.S. On the topic of refereeing and the JWH incident, have a look at this clip from the 1994 Preliminary Final between Canberra and Norths, where Greg McCallum sent off both John Lomax and Gary Larson. Boy oh boy I wish refereeing would go back to those days where refs actually had the balls to make tough decisions rather than the absolute joke of a mob that is going around these days in pink shirts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6aA-aqDNJY

P.P.S A shame we couldn't produce the epic Manly/Newcastle GF! Oh well, there's another year.

 

[undertaker]

We got beaten by a superior side. I can cop that although the large scoreline is a bit disappointing. The second try (the gridiron pass one) was the straw that broke the camel's back. Going into halftime 6-4 would have been incredible considering the way the Roosters were playing and we were defending with absolutely everything we had but 12-4 you just got a sense it was a bit too much for us.

Their forwards are just freakish, they pummelled us with their quick play-the-balls and offloads. As I said I can cop that because they are simply better than us in that area. At the end of the day I'm actually almost more shattered with the way Bedsy went out than how the game ended up.

We had a very good finals series all things considered (including no Snowden, Gidley or Cuthbertson). A lot to look forward to for next year.

We were still in it at 12-4 IF we were the team to score first in the 2nd half. When the Roosters scored first and went up 18-4 (i.e. more than 2 converted tries ahead), we would've had to better last week's performance and produce one of the best 40mins of football in our club's history to get over the line, which wasn't going to happen when, compared to last week, we were simply not doing the fundamentals such as completing sets, not throwing unnecessary passes etc.

And compared to the previous two weeks (largely off the back of Leulia, Gagai and Buderus runs), we looked VERY slow out there tonight. This was a match we could've really done with someone like Buderus (who went off early) AND a metre-maker like Snowden in the forwards. Still very filthy he got suspended for 7 weeks for that "shoulder charge" on Thompson and think that the NRL were reactionary not because of the shoulder charge but because of the injury Thompson occurred (which was unlucky, but there have been far worse ones than that such as Inglis' one on Dean Young last year).

 

[Zoidberg]

It wasn't just that 2nd try. I feel the moment we lost Bedsy we lost the game.

The 1st 30mins they were making breaks out wide but we were strong in the middle, Bedsy goes and they keep going straight through the ruck.

We also pretty much lost faith after their 1st try in the 2nd half to take it to a 14 point lead. We knew we had to push things and got away from our gameplan from then on.If that gridiron try wasn't allowed and they only went to an 8 point lead it could've been different. But as the channel 9 commentary said (bit biased there Gus you goose) "you can read about it in the paper tomorrow".

 

[undertaker]

One of the things that doesn't surprise me was Princess not standing up when it mattered. Absolute pea heart that is a waste of coin that would be better used elsewhere.

...yet we can see what Princess is definitely capable of when State of Origin comes around (all you have to look at is the commitment in his runs from kick returns in Origin compared to at the Knights).

That's undoubtedly one of the most frustrating elements about him. Dunno why he doesn't put in anywhere near as much as he does in Origin. Wayne really needs to get him to pull his finger out of his bum next year.

 

[undertaker]

Even when we took the first two. The bloke was far from onside and tackles Mullo. Another blatant professional foul.

Just so frustrating.

That frustrated the crap out of me as well when I saw that. Very reminiscent of our encounter against them a couple of months ago where they just kept giving away penalty after penalty on their goal-line for professional fouls, yet no one got sin-binned.

 

[undertaker]

I'll always support the Knights but geez the NRL admin and refs have taken all the fun away.

This.

Inept refereeing and wrestling are the two main things which have slowly killed my interest in the NRL over the past, I would say, few years or so (starting with when the 2-refereeing system was implemented). These days, excluding Origin/Tests/Finals matches, I rarely watch regular season games that don't involve the Knights, unlike 10yrs ago when I used to watch nearly every game.

I have loved the Knights since following them as a youngster in the mid-90s and would go to far more home games if the Knights management weren't so greedy by jacking up the ticket prices, as well as expanding Category 1 seating to encompass both grandstands between the 10m marks. That's just plain greedy and it reflected this year with decreased attendances compared to last year. So much for those 'affordable' tickets that I kept reading about when Tinkler took over the club

Rooster will put 40 on us

Oh, how I wish you didn't say that

 

[undertaker]

Sorry everyone, but you all have to cheer and cheer hard for Manly next week. Not only for a win, but for some broken Roosters skulls.

Even if Manly does not win next week, they, in my opinion, have easily surpassed Melbourne as the most dominant side of the last decade (I would say the Storm had they no been cheating the salary cap). Making 4 GFs in 7 years is a remarkable achievement that deserves to be commended, unlike Souffs that still haven't made a GF after 42 years! At least there's something to laugh at, and we can all have a heart LOL@5(c)uff$

The Roosters made 4 GFs in 5 years (2000, 2002-2004), BUT of course they were over the cap and good old Sticky Ricky had a great time with Nick Politis' chequebook. After all, they are one of two premiership teams that were fined for breaching the cap in the year they won the comp (in 2002, just like Canberra did in 1990 when the salary cap was strictly enforced).

 

[Swarzey]

That frustrated the crap out of me as well when I saw that. Very reminiscent of our encounter against them a couple of months ago where they just kept giving away penalty after penalty on their goal-line for professional fouls, yet no one got sin-binned.

And watch, something will happen next week in the Grand Final and it will not be ruled upon. We've been waiting for a referee f**k up to cost a team the premiership and I have a feeling that could be next Sunday.

But imagine if that happened to the Roosters? I'd probably lose it :lol: